eClerx Services Ltd (eClerx) is a Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) and ISO 27001 certified company with a strong focus on information security. In addition to middle and back office operation support, they provide data management and analytics solutions to sales and marketing organizations.

Incorporated in 2000, the organization is India’s first and only publicly listed KPO company, which is traded on both the Bombay and National Stock Exchanges of India. In addition to operating five global delivery centers in India, eClerx and its subsidiaries have offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, and Singapore. eClerx is an existing Dell vendor and provides more than 50 Fortune 500 and Internet Retailer 500 companies with expertise in consulting, and improving and automating process workflows. As an organization experiencing 30 percent year-on year growth, they are witnessing a rapid increase in the demand for KPO services. eClerx delivers a large number of data processing and data analysis projects from their India delivery centers and wanted to ensure that the company met the stringent security requirements of their customers’ organizations. With 5,500 professionals, there were a number of challenges arising from simultaneously managing the desktop environment and providing effective support to all users. eClerx’s IT team was finding it increasingly difficult to deliver highly reliable access to data and applications required for client projects, while continuing to provide control and protection of the company’s environment. SanjayKukreja, Principal, Technology Services, eClerx, says, “With our existing desktop environment, we needed to rely on large numbers of support staff to ensure that individual desktops had the right security settings and to respond to user issues and service requests. It was becoming an increasingly inefficient way of managing our infrastructure.”

Thin client technology opens up new possibilities for KPO firm

The company began evaluating applications and desktopvirtualization solutions that would host virtual applications and desktops throughout the organization. eClerx wanted to improve the capabilities of the company’s skilled global workforce. In addition, they wanted to eliminate security vulnerabilities arising from data stored on desktops, available to all users. A virtual desktop environment would bring the company focus back on client delivery and minimize routine maintenance tasks such as provisioning individual desktops and installing updates and patches. eClerx conducted a pilot using Citrix® XenDesktop™/ XenApp™ on Dell Wyse thin clients, hosted on Dell PowerEdge™ M910 blade servers. Upon completion of the successful pilot, the company deployed Dell Wyse C10LE thin clients within the delivery centers in India. “Running a virtual desktop environment on Dell Wyse thin clients is more cost-effective in terms of the investment capital required to deploy the solution and the day-to-day management, says Kukreja.

As a knowledge process outsourcing company, eClerx is recognizing significant benefits from improved mobility, productivity, and security. “If we compare our previous desktop environment to our new virtual desktop infrastructure powered by Dell, we estimate that we have achieved overall cost-savings and efficiency improvements of 40 percent,” says Kukreja.

Revised security policy meets strict compliance requirements

All company data is now residing on the Dell PowerEdge blade servers and is remotely managed by the eClerx IT team. Previously, multiple users shared individual desktops during work shifts within the delivery centers, which made it difficult to segregate user access. With Citrix® XenDesktop™ XenApp™ and Dell Wyse thin client technology, eClerx can create and update user profiles for specific contracts with each client. Our complete security policy has changed. While we provided employees with unlimited data and desktop services access earlier, we now grant them access only to the specific files and applications that they need. This guarantees that we can enforce strict security requirements of our clients to keep their business secure,” says Kukreja.

eClerx is improving the productivity of their workforce as a result of the company’s evolving desktop strategy. With no data held at the desktop level, the Dell Wyse thin clients are highly reliable and deliver 99.99 percent availability to users. This means employees can focus on project delivery, instead of solving IT issues. Kukreja says, “We’ve received a positive response from our employees due to a decrease in the number of IT issues they experienced. Their attention is on our client projects and not on managing internal processes.”

Business gains access to a global talent pool to optimize resourcing of KPO projects

As a KPO company, eClerx gains an advantage in being able to select the right employees for projects from a global talent pool. The company’s employees have improved flexibility in being able to work within any office and any desk, without having to worry about accessing the required project resources. This increased agility has enabled the company to enact form virtual teams across offices. Kukreja says, “The concept of virtual teams has become far more prominent within the organization and this means we can deliver specific skill sets and experience to clients, regardless of location. We can offer clients a truly global talent pool without geographical limits. With thin client architecture, our employees can work anywhere and remain completely connected to projects and resources.”

The Desktop Application
Virtualization domain has garnered massive responses here in India and is fast emerging as of the leading services in the KPO sector in India. With the introduction of advanced technology like WYSE thin clients and Citrix® XenDesktop™ desktop virtualization
services has started getting momentum among Indian KPO companies. This has numerous benefits l that is it helps
in improving the overall productivity with more than ninety-five percent
reliability of delivery of clients’ projects. Further, it helps in fostering
remote IT management strategy delivering massive improvement in saving operating cost for the company. Thus, these working fields are fast emerging as one of the key KPO services in India.